Walk on a Lady's nose: the Mundango Trail in Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Sometimes you just need a place to disappear off to, be amongst nature and chill out.  Lucky for us, we happened to be in just the place to do it, Vilcabamba.  It's a town know for its residents with long lives, and healthy mineral water straight from the mountain.  It's set amongst beautiful scenery in the Andes just a few hours north of Peru.

There are limited things to do in Vilcabamba, high on the list is taking in the scenery.  We stayed at a wonderful backpacker hostel called Izhcayluma that describes itself as a resort with backpacker prices, and it doesn´t disappoint.  It's nestled high on a hill just outside of town, and has a pool, massage available, breakfast buffet, and little cabinas nestled in the trees.  Our $28/night with private bath, hot water shower, and breakfast  was frankly a steal.  Dorms are about $10-night.  Here's a little bit of their digs.

walkway to our room; Kyle in the hammock; pool area

We set out for adventure in Vilcabamba.  Our hostel made it so easy, with 6 marked hikes around town, and a book of maps, there is no reason to NOT give one a try.  So we set out to the Mandando trail nearby that literally goes down the bridge of the nose of a "woman" lying in the mountains.  The visual:

her face is on the right looking up to the sky

The trail literally goes along this lady's face.  I'd never walked on a mountain ridge before, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit it's a bit frightening.  I'll go in order here though.  

First, you walk up hill to the big white cross.  Why is there a cross?  It's a law of nearly any spanish settled city that you ain't arrived if you ain't got a big cross on the highest point near your town.  Everybody gotta look up at Jesus.

Then you keep walking up the trail to get to the tip of the lady's nose.

The trail follow's along the top line of her face, and beyond further. 


Watch out - it gets steep!


As the trail wove on, we ended up fighting off crazy guard dogs in a farm field and mixing trails around because too many  cows were blocking our path.  We climbed 4 barbed wire fences all because the cows wouldn't move and they wouldn't scoot much to the pleading of these city folk.

We got soaked in rain, but all was good again in life when we made it back to the hostel for some hot german pasta and hot cocoa.